How Fawkes Bonded With Dumbledore
by Priya Ashok
Summary: This is my theory of how Fawkes bonded with Albus Dumbledore. Please Read and Review. Thank you.


_**How Fawkes bonded with Dumbledore!**_

It was evening. The day had been bleak; the evening was dark and bitterly cold. Winds were blowing fiercely and the dark clouds had unburdened themselves showering the earth, flooding her with sweet water. Albus Dumbledore was walking slowly in the rain, soaked to the skin, but noticing nothing. He was walking in the village of Godric's Hollow. The sleepy, beautiful village would become famous more than a century later when one of its residents, Harry Potter, defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort and became the Boy-Who-Lived.

The day Albus Dumbledore was walking through the village was however a long time before the Halloween of 1981. He was a young boy and if one looked closely at the almost bent figure walking as if he was carrying an unbearably heavy weight, one could see the trembling lips, the occasional gasps, and his sharp nose broken and not quite healed. The tears that ran down his cheeks were not visible though, having long mixed with the rain pouring down from the skies.

He walked past Bathilda's House, the house where the only boy he ever loved and would continue to love until he died, Gellert Grindelwald had lived. Usually Albus would have blushed and smiled a secret smile as he passed that house, glancing shyly at _his_ home. The house where Gellert had lived with his aunt; the house he had run to, when he had run away from Albus. Run away from Albus's dreams, hopes and future. The only thing Gellert refused to run away was from Albus's soul. Somehow he had become a part of it.

Today though was a different day. Today Albus did not even glance at that house. He walked until he reached the ancient church of Godric's Hollow and went behind to the graveyard where his mother was buried, where the second of the Peverell brothers lay and where Lily and James Potter would be laid to rest in the future.

Albus slowly walked to the kissing gate at the entrance of the graveyard and opened the gate. He walked through the graves, ancient and recent, until he came to his mother's grave, where, next to her, his sister Ariana was laid to eternal rest, the day before.

_Kendra,_ the grave read _and her daughter Ariana_ with the quotation; _Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also_

Albus started sobbing loudly, his chest heaving as he fell onto his knees, throwing himself on the grave with great sorrow. The grave was made of lichen-spotted granite with their names along with their dates of birth and death written on it. Ariana was placed next to Kendra, as if to say she would take care of her daughter in the afterlife as she did on this earth. The care her brother was unable to give her.

He lifted his head looking at his mother's name.

He begged her to forgive him for not doing his duty, with tears running down his face, he turned to his sister and told her about the failure he had become, about the love he lost and could not forget, about the rift with his brother and wept, begging her to forgive him for that which cannot be forgiven; he opened his soul for the first and the last time in his life and poured out his grief and his despair. Then he placed his head on the granite again and fell silent.

It was nearly dawn when Albus slowly raised his head and caressed the granite with the hand that cast the curse which caused her death; the rain had stopped and so had his tears; instead, in his face was a grim determination, in his eyes a clarity, in his soul a promise that showed he had changed, that he had turned away from what he was, to what he would become. He slowly stood up and removing his wand, conjured a single red rose and placed it on her grave.

He stood straight, his red hair whipped around by the cold wind that was still blowing, but the wizard felt nothing. He had resented the responsibility of one child and that cost him everything; from this day onward he swore he would take on the responsibility of the world around him, helping everyone he could. There was nothing that he would call his personal desires, accomplishments and achievements. Every thing he did he decided, would be for others. He had lost the right to do anything for himself, when his selfish desires had cost him everything. He prayed to Ariana, asking her to make sure that he would never go astray, begging her to look after him.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light; a moment later, a crimson bird the size of a swan appeared. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock and gleaming golden talons with a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes. The great bird stood on the grave and looked at the boy who had assumed such a great burden on his young shoulders and trilled softly.

Albus looked at the bird in shock and wonder, his heart soothed a little by its song, something he had never thought or hoped would happen in this lifetime and, waited until it stopped singing. He bowed deeply, thanking the crimson bird for its soothing song and looked at the grave one last time raising a hand in farewell and turned to leave. He would not have taken two steps, when he stumbled; almost falling as a huge comforting weight settled on his right shoulder. Albus stood for a minute; trying to understand; he had just renounced everything, but the bird, it seemed, wanted to come with him on his journey. He let it, thinking the bird would soon leave him on its own. He was wrong. It was he who left the bird, when he died more than a century later. Until then, Fawkes, as he named it was his constant companion, friend and solace. It was a very long time later that Albus realised Fawkes was Ariana's forgiveness, sent by her to look after him.

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